


Her classmate was dead

by Silverwing013



Series: Contrary [5]
Category: Danny Phantom
Genre: Fruitloops, Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-03-15
Updated: 2021-03-14
Packaged: 2021-03-23 05:49:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 799
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30050871
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Silverwing013/pseuds/Silverwing013
Summary: Contrary to the majority, Maddie believed Vlad was still alive.
Relationships: Danny Fenton & Maddie Fenton, Maddie Fenton & Vlad Masters
Series: Contrary [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2199681
Comments: 2
Kudos: 13





	Her classmate was dead

"This is ridiculous," the Fenton matriarch nearly shouted.

Grumbling, she shifted boxes and attempted to fit the one in her hand inside the small hallway closet. Pushing the door, she heard a crunch, wincing at the sound. Still crunching loudly in the early morning, she shoved until the door clicked shut. Fishing out the key from her pocket, Maddie locked it.

It was a great thing no one used the hallway closet, preferring to remove coats wherever was handy or inside their rooms. She really had no concerns on anyone trying to get into the closet, but the time had come that it was no longer an option. Tomorrow would call for a new place to begin hiding the boxes.

A thudding of feet marked the downstairs entrance of her son and she smiled as he came around the corner. Danny beamed back, giving his morning greeting, and ducked his head in embarrassment as she took the moment to kiss his forehead. Maddie smiled again. He still let her do it.

Mother and son walked into the kitchen.

He eyed her carefully and she nearly laughed at his caution. After all this time, he still worried about ecto infected food. Humming to herself, she started up the stove and got out the eggs. Heading over to the fridge himself, Danny pulled out the orange juice. She watched him pour two glasses and found her mind wandering over the breakfast not in the room.

Just how many times did he call Vlad a fruit loop?

Brows furrowed down, Danny turned to look at her and Maddie froze as she realized she had asked the question out loud.

"I don't know," he slowly replied. "Why do you want to know?"

She laughed nervously. "No reason honey. I was only thinking out loud."

"Oh," Danny responded. He seemed a little put off by her answer and Maddie sharpened her gaze on the youngest Fenton. It was pain and regret, confusion and sadness. She itched, understanding the sadness for how Vlad took his choices and they had been many choices Danny himself had to endure with the uniqueness that forever linked her college classmate and her son. It wasn't a link Maddie liked much, it was clear her son turned in on himself every time the man was brought up. Yet it was Jazz he felt comfortable talking with about the topic of Vlad, so she hadn't pushed.

Maddie had done everything she could to avoid pushing Danny about that particular…person.

So certain daily deliveries were kept hidden. And it wasn't the newspaper.

She feared Vlad was still alive. He was certainly still very much alive in Danny's heart.

"A lot, I lost track." Mother turned to see Danny carefully speaking not to her, but to his plate of scrambled eggs, moving them around with his fork. "He threa—said he'd pay me back for every time that I said it. He never did."

When Danny left the house, Maddie watched him go. Red shoes crunched as they went. She went still. He looked back at her, catching the hitch in her farewells and reminders. She smiled at him, he sent one back, then spun on his heel to head out. The front door shut and Maddie looked down at the rainbow crumbs scattering the floor, fruit loops that had fallen from crunched box and hallway door.

"This is ridiculous."

Long past understanding why she let the man reside in her house and mind, trying to hide it from her son, Maddie thought of the empty storage box down in the basement. It felt wrong to throw them out. She could feel that sadness creeping up. What had happened to Vlad was her fault, she failed to keep trying and remain by his side as a friend, not realizing what they had done. Cut off from family and successfully pushing away his only friends, he had become lonesome and vengeful. His prized tenacity that all at the college respected him for became twisted and drove him to something Maddie found hard to swallow from the young man he used to be, cherishing his few relationships so strongly.

It was he who ate up her insides, eating away slowly.

Everyday, he was brought to the forefront of her mind and to front door with a cheerfully bright delivery. Nothing of the tangled thoughts circulating about Vlad were cheerful or bright.

Most of all, Maddie hated herself, not for her part of Vlad's accident and their past; but she hated herself for how her son blamed himself for not being able to turn Vlad back into that young man she had so strongly admired.

Alive or not, Vlad remained the same, clinging to the last relationship he cherished.

Maddie swept up the rainbow crumbs.


End file.
